If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

2 Swarms today this morning 10am ish Apr 8 2011

Both swarms min of 4 Lbs each, cut out of tree limbs within 500 ft of hive's.
Both on "Honey Super Cell" and Pierco full drawn out comb with a little honey left in it.
checked on them this afternoon and they both were Orientating in front

Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

El Dorado school in Stockton, CA 95206 4-7-11.
Got a call from a teacher at the school and as i was asking questions he asked "how much will this cost?" I told him I was not going to charge anything. He was like great! Then he ran in to red tape, principle concerned about different things such as "what if this guy gets injuried while on grounds" Of which he called the Superintendent's office. I also called the Super's office to try and speed up the process since I was on a deadline to go to my regualr job. When the Super called me back, he told me "the bees flew off already, but he wanted to hang on to my card for when more arrive, they get them every year and have been looking for a keeper for years. Told him no prob, call me anytime.
Well, I got a call from the teacher yesterday telling me that they (the school) sprayed them, they were all dead when he went out before before lunch that same day. He is going to try and get the news paper involved and wanted to know if he could give the paper my number if they pick up the article.

Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Swarms 3 & 4 (All since Monday):

4/8: Got call near dark about a swarm. Hived it that night in a nuc. Really not sure how large the swarm was but I doubt it was over 2 pounds. Brought it home 4/9 AM.

4/9: Got call around 6:30PM about a large swarm 38 miles away. Was dark by the time most of the bees were in the hive. Left hive there to get the rest of the bees that were around the box or on the ground below where the swarm was located on a bush. Swarm could have been 7 pounds or more. There were a lot of bees. Will go back tomorrow after church, seal off entrance and bring back the hived swarm.

Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Near Tours in France. Had first swarm at 4 pm today. We no sooner got it and hived it when another swarm issued from a second hive. I've just finished hiving that after mega trouble and their constantly going higher into a hedge of brambles and hawthorn. (You can go off bees sometimes!) The second swarm was one of the largest I've ever caught, which leads me to my question.
Last Wednesday I decided to reduce the number of stocks we had as we had seven and only wanted three or four. We united several of them using the newspaper method.
When we went through them on Wednesday (not all of them) there was a lot of sealed brood, relatively few eggs and open brood, and no sign of queen cells in the stocks we examined.
As I normally unite stocks later in the season, could it be that uniting them (I didn't destroy either queen) has simply forced them into swarming with one of the queens? I'd assumed the queens would simply fight it out and only one remain.
These are second generation Carniolans (x with French mongrel blacks) and very swarmy most seasons, but super prolific and good at wintering.

Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

4/10: Brought home swarm (#4) from Spring Hill, TN. Got almost all of the bees. Screened off the entrance and then sprayed SW/HBH on entrance and bees at entrance. Waited a little while and then sprayed again as there were a lot more bees at entrance. Covered hive with sheet underneath hive which captured almost all of the bees. Brought hive home.

4/10: Swarm #5. On the way back from Spring Hill got a call for a large swarm in Nashville. Took hive home, released the bees, repacked with new equipment and sheet and headed out. Bees left just before I got there. We found them across the street in a dogwood tree. At least 5 to 7 pounds. Sheet, hive, SS/HBH, and shake. After a few more shakes and scoops put on IC. Later OC. After OC wasn't long before most bees were hived. Sealed entrance, SW/HBH, wrapped with sheet, cinched up hive, put in truck and took to a farm. No worse for the wear.

Re: Please Post your Swarm Dates?

Western NC My largest hive swarmed april 10. 11 days ago there were NO queen cells. I was supposed to go through them after I ran an errand. husband called while I was out and told me they were swarming.

12 ft up in a norway spruce with wild rose brambles throughout. thanks, girls.
I learned to climb a ladder with a chainsaw in a bee suit.

They were about 2.5 basketballs worth. I only had a top bar hive around, so that is where they are.

NOW I understand the difference between swarm cells and seeing queen cells. They did have a weird pattern of laying going on and didn't know what that meant.